It looks like my above posting might not be true. The originator of the posting is standing by it claiming to have two LEO resources confirming it, but direct calls to the various departments in the area by other media outlets have not resulted in confirmation.

"There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs â€” partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.

--Booker T. Washington

I got that from an oped piece by Walter E. Williams, professor of economics at George Mason University and a man whose syndicated columns I very much enjoy reading.

the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her "closest friends." According to CNN, the group is expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms, more than a third of the lodgings at the 160-room resort. Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times.

Reports are calling the lodgings of Obama's Spanish fiesta, the Hotel Villa Padierna in Marbella, "luxurious," "posh" and "a millionaires' playground." Estimated room rate per night? Up to a staggering $2,500. Method of transportation? Air Force Two.

Get that? lets say 65 rooms at "only" $2000 per night each. That's $130,000 PER NIGHT that Michelle Obama (and 40 of her closest friends) are costing the US Taxpayer at the Spanish Riviera.

I hope every unemployed American looks carefully at what these idiots that we elected to Washington are doing.

To be clear, what the Obamas do with their money is one thing; what they do with ours is another. Transporting and housing the estimated 70 Secret Service agents who will flank the material girl will cost the taxpayers a pretty penny.

Perhaps it could be that the Obamas, who seem to fancy themselves more along the lines of international celebrities than actual leaders, espouse a different view of sacrifice. When Michelle Obama accompanied her husband to Copenhagen along with best buddy Oprah Winfrey, she billed the trip - an ultimately unsuccessful bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago - as follows: "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the President to come for these few days, so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring this bid home."

Why the fuck does Michelle rate 70 secret service agents? SHE isn't the President.

Raytheon has developed LASERs that can take out missiles;
http://www.raytheon.com/newsroom/featur ... 025223.pdfNot sure how effective they are.
The U.S. military has lost a lot of strength in the last few decades. This article pints out some numbers;
http://www.mayanmajix.com/art565.htmlThe other risk of widespread war is a cutoff of oil supplies. China has spent a lot of time and money getting control of maritime chokepoints. They can cut off a LOT of shipping. Their attitude is easy to understand;
"Hong Kong's Cheng Ming newspaper quoted Chinese Defence Minister Chi Haotian as saying war with the United States is inevitable."
The U.S. is not completely oblivious to this;
"Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest ranking military officer in the U.S. has concluded that China is planning on a major war with the U.S. within the next two years.

Admiral Moorer believes a conflict with China over Taiwan is inevitable and that such a war is likely to lead to the use of atomic weapons by both sides."

"Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest ranking military officer in the U.S. has concluded that China is planning on a major war with the U.S. within the next two years.

Do you honestly believe Obama will defend Taiwan against China? Really?

"Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest ranking military officer in the U.S. has concluded that China is planning on a major war with the U.S. within the next two years.

Do you honestly believe Obama will defend Taiwan against China? Really?

I don't see that happening.

nope, I don't see it, either.

one fear I'd have, though, is that his ego could get in the way, and, to prove his "detractors" wrong, he'd do something totally stupid........

Not in the slightest. It makes you wonder why he made the comment. Maybe he was pushing U.S. bonds. Maybe he was trying to sell LOTS more military equipment Iran, on the other hand is more or less itching for war.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e26140.htm"IRGC commanders will interpret any American strike as the beginning of an existential conflict, and will respond appropriately. "
" IRGC as the â€œmost ideological armed force in the world.â€

I don't post things because I believe that they are the absolute truth. I post them because I believe that they should be considered.

Black radical anti business activist. Affirmative Action and Job Preference for blacks. Univ of Maryland Business School Dean teaches U.S. Business has caused world poverty. ACORN board member. Communist DuBois Club member.
Jeffrey Crowley

The former failed superintendent of San Diego. Ultra Liberal friend of Hilary Clinton. Served as Border Czar under Janet Reno - to keep borders open to illegals without interference from U.S.
David J. Hayes

Devoted lobbyist for every restrictive gun law proposal, Former Chief of Police in Liberal Seattle. Believes no American should own a firearm. Supports legalization of all drugs
Paul Volcker

E conomicCzar

Head of Fed. Reserve under Jimmy Carter when U.S. Economy nearly failed. Obama appointed head of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board which engineered the Obama economic disaster to U.S. Economy. Member of anti-business "Progressive Policy" organization
Carol Brower

Energy and Environment Czar

Political Radical Former head of EPA - known for anti-business activism. Strong anti-gun ownership.
Joshua DuBois

Chicago radical anti-business environmentalist. Blames George Bush for "Poisoning the water that minorities have to drink." No experience or training in water management. Former ACORN Board member
Van Jones

Green Jobs Czar

(since resigned).. Black activist Member of American Communist Party and San Francisco Communist Party who said Geo. Bush caused the 911 attack and wanted Bush investigated by the World Court for war crimes. Black activist with strong anti-white views.
Daniel Fried

Former head of Medicare / Medicaid. Strong Health Care Rationing proponent. She is married to a reporter for The New York Times.
Vivek Kundra

Information Czar

Born in New Delhi, India. Controls all public information, including labels and news releases. Monitors all private Internet emails.
Todd Stern

International Climate Czar

Anti-business former White House chief of Staff- Strong supportrer of the Kyoto Accord. Pushing hard for Cap and Trade. Blames U.S. Business for Global warming. Anti- U.S. Business prosperity.
Dennis Blair

Intelligence Czar

Ret. Navy. Stopped U.S. Guided missile program as "provocative". Chair of ultra liberal "Council on Foreign Relations" which blames American organizations for regional wars.
George Mitchell

Mideast Peace Czar

Fmr. Sen from Maine Left wing radical. Has said Israel should be split up into "2 or 3 " smaller more manageable plots". A true Anti-nuclear anti-gun & pro homosexual "special rights" advocate
Kenneth Feinberg

Liberal activist judge believes free speech needs to be limited for the "common good". Essentially against 1st amendment. Rules against personal freedoms many times -like private gun ownership and right to free speech.
John Holdren

Puerto Rican born Anti American activist and leftist group member in Latin America. Millionaire "slum lord" of the Bronx, NY. Owns many lavish homes and condos which he got from "sweetheart" deals with labor unions. Wants higher taxes on middle class to pay for minority housing and health care
Ashton Carter

Weapons Czar

Leftist. Wants all private weapons in U.S. destroyed. Supports UN ban on firearms ownership in America .. No Other "policy"
Gary Samore

WMD Policy Czar

Former U.S. Communist. Wants U.S. to destroy all WMD unilaterally as a show of good faith. Has no other "policy".

I don't post things because I believe that they are the absolute truth. I post them because I believe that they should be considered.

CSS, I know there are many on this board who cannot stand Glenn Beck, but everything you just wrote, plus MUCH more was exposed by GB months, and in some cases, over a year ago. And there is SO MUCH MORE!

Why do you think the Department of Education is being pressured to remove "key" history instruction from the next generation?

He has very interesting guests and often very interesting conversation.

It isn't a "call in" program.

But Obama with his czars is part of a "progressive" program that has been going on for decades to create bureaucracies to handle regulation that do not answer to elected officials. In that way the officials can "wash their hands" of the decisions saying they didn't make them. They are basically directed by a "politburo" of individuals outside of elected office. The California Air Resources Board and California Coastal Commission are examples of this. The EPA is becoming one though it is still under the direction of the President, I see a time coming when someone is going to argue to make it independent of any authority but its own.

ADDED: and by creating these "czars" (Caesars in Latin or Kaisers in German), he gets around the Congressional approval process. He doesn't have to answer to the Senate and neither do the "czars".

The Eurozone is getting a big dose of un-elected people running the show. That isn't necessarily bad. Democracy only works when it's limited. It always busts the bank when it has no limits. People clamor for more than the budget allows. This is only a generalization though. The BIG problem is that these czars are completely unqualified in most cases.
The science czar Holdren wants to see the U.S. de-industrialized. He figures that this will improve the quality if living. Evidently, he doesn't see extreme poverty as being a negative for quality of living.
Trish, I don't have radio or TV. Don't think I've ever heard Glen Beck. I do hate the idea of trying to submerge our history.

I don't post things because I believe that they are the absolute truth. I post them because I believe that they should be considered.

This is strange. Harvard sold every investment in israel. Israel is a strong and dynamic economy. Cal me pessimistic BUT, I can see only one reason for Harvard to take an action that would generate a lot of negative fallout. WAR.
When Berkeley debated divestiture, there was a huge public debate and outcry. WHY would Harvard risk the same? Why now? Why hasn't israel protested?
http://www.legitgov.org/Harvard-Univers ... l-holdings

I don't post things because I believe that they are the absolute truth. I post them because I believe that they should be considered.

Re Harvard: Its the fashion. All the "kewl kids" are doing that. Nevermind that Israel currently leads the world in research and development. That doesn't matter. Apparently Harvard is too sexy for its shirt.

But check this out:

IL Rep. Melissa Brown has union thug intimidating constituents who ask "inconvenient" questions. The guy is quite frightening in how he treats the first woman in the video. Walks over to her, leans down over her, gets right in her face while he glares at her.

This is what happens when you get "government health care". The administration is apparently pressuring the FDA to withdraw approval of a breast cancer treatment because it is "too expensive".

[quote]Federal regulators are considering taking the highly unusual step of rescinding approval of a drug that patients with advanced breast cancer turn to as a last-ditch hope.

The debate over Avastin, prescribed to about 17,500 women with breast cancer a year, has become entangled in the politically explosive struggle over medical spending and effectiveness that flared during the battle over health-care reform: How should the government balance protecting patients and controlling costs without restricting access to cutting-edge, and often costly, treatments? â€¦

The FDA is not supposed to consider costs in its decisions, but if the agency rescinds approval, insurers are likely to stop paying for treatment.

It appears that Harvard did NOT divest its holdings of Israeli stocks. Here is what happened:

In May, Israel was reclassified from a "developing" country to a "developed" country. Harvard has a portfolio of investments in developing economies. So they removed the assets from that portfolio and "rebalanced" them:

the Management Company's most recent S.E.C. filing details changes in holdings, as is routine, but no change in policy. The University has not divested from Israel. Israel was moved from the MSCI, our benchmark in emerging markets, to the EAFE index in May due to its successful growth. Our emerging markets holdings were rebalanced accordingly. We have holdings in developed markets, including Israel, through outside managers in commingled accounts and indexes, which are not reported in the filing in question".

So Harvard still holds Israeli investments, just not in its "emerging" economies portfolio.

For years prohibitionists, including our own Drug Enforcement Administration, have claimed â€” falsely â€” that the tolerant marijuana policies of the Netherlands have made that nation a nest of crime and drug abuse. They may have trouble wrapping their little brains around this:

The Dutch government is getting ready to close eight prisons because they donâ€™t have enough criminals to fill them. Officials attribute the shortage of prisoners to a declining crime rate.

Just for fun, letâ€™s compare the Netherlands to California. With a population of 16.6 million, the Dutch prison population is about 12,000. With its population of 36.7 million, California should have a bit more than double the Dutch prison population. Californiaâ€™s actual prison population is 171,000.

So, whose drug policies are keeping the streets safer?

==================

I don't post things because I believe that they are the absolute truth. I post them because I believe that they should be considered.

CSS, that is an impressive comparison; although, I wonder how many illegal aliens the Dutch have to deal with which leads to gang activities and fraud. I'm sure the difference in drug policies greatly contributes to the difference, I just do not believe it is all drug policy related.

Many people believe that some drugs are legal in the Netherlands because of the availability of cannabis - but the reality is more complicated. The Dutch system tolerates licensed "coffee shops", where people can buy small amounts of cannabis for personal consumption. But the trafficking and sale of drugs remains illegal.

In effect, the Dutch have a system where cannabis sales are decriminalised in an effort to separate out its consumption from other drugs on the market.

But they are wrong on this count:

Thirteen states, led by California, have decriminalised the consumption of cannabis for medicinal purposes - although in some cases the law conflicts clearly with federal legislation.

It was led by Alaska, not California. Alaska was the first to decriminalize small amounts of cannabis and not even for "medicinal" use, in 1975.

In Alaska, cannabis was decidedly legal (under state, but not federal, law) for in-home, personal use under the Ravin v. State ruling of 1975. This ruling allowed up to two ounces (57 g) of cannabis and cultivation of fewer than 25 plants for these purposes. A 1991 voter ballot initiative recriminalized marijuana possession, but when that law was eventually challenged in 2004, the Alaska courts upheld the Ravin ruling, saying the popular vote could not trump the state constitution. In response to former Governor Frank Murkowski's successive attempt to re-criminalize cannabis, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the state. On July 17, 2006, Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins awarded the Case Summary judgment to the ACLU. In her ruling, she said "No specific argument has been advanced in this case that possession of more than 1 ounce (28 g) of cannabis, even within the privacy of the home, is constitutionally protected conduct under Ravin or that any plaintiff or ACLU of Alaska member actually possesses more than 1 ounce (28 g) of cannabis in their homes." This does not mean that the legal possession threshold has been reduced to one ounce, as this was a mere case summary review filed by the ACLU, not a full case. Reinforcing Ravin, Collins wrote "A lower court cannot reverse the State Supreme Court's 1975 decision in Ravin v. State" and "Unless and until the Supreme Court directs otherwise, Ravin is the law in this state and this court is duty bound to follow that law". The law regarding possession of cannabis has not changed in Alaska, and the Supreme Court has declined to review the case, therefore the law still stands at 4 ounces (113 g).[citation needed] However, federal prosecutions under the CSA can be brought in Federal Court, and federal courts applying federal law are not bound by state court precedent. As such, federal courts in Alaska will recognize that possession of any quantity of marijuana remains illegal in Alaska under federal law.

Which might be the reason why Sarah Palin recently described cannabis as a "minimal problem":

"I think we need to prioritize our law enforcement efforts," Palin said. "And if somebody's gonna smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody else any harm, then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in and try to clean up some of the other problems that we have in society."

The pharmaceutical companies are making great progress in getting rid of vitamins. The FDA is making great strides in getting rid of nutritious food.
"They believe you have no right to good health, except as approved by the FDA "
"Plaintiffs' assertion of a 'fundamental right to their own bodily and physical health, which includes what foods they do and do not choose to consume for themselves and their families' is similarly unavailing because plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish."

The world is fast changing and, I guess, this thread is the place to talk about it. As we all know, israel is a U.S. forward garrison to control Mid-East oil. Much of the excuse for war is oil.
Everybody is trying to lock up supplies of oil. We're doing our best to screw Russia out of Central Asian oil. When Hubbert came up with his peak-oil theory, explorers were pretty much sure of all the areas that held oil. It was running out. This was true.
As you all know, South America was recently attached to Africa. It drifted apart.

It has been recently discovered that a large percentage of the no-longer joined area has hundreds of billions of barrels of oil. Brazil and Namibia are in the center of all this. The Brazilians and Russians have gotten very good at recovering this oil.
http://energyandscarcityinvestor.agoraf ... discovery/

There is no doubt that this will change world politics. Namibia has only 2 million people.
Just as the Anglo-American companies did their best to screw up Iran as a country, I wouldn't be surprised if they did the same to Namibia.
http://www.oilcompanies.net/oil1.htm China has signed a 10 year contract with Brazil to provide oil. The Chinese may block america from screwing up Brazil. Namibia will be toast now that the reserves have been proven.
There has been speculation that the Gulf blowout was done on purpose. It resulted in obama ordering a moratorium on gulf drilling. BP brass specifically ordered the drillers to NOT execute a standard procedure for blocking the well to maintain pressure as they were reading it for production.

As the Russian and Brazilian drillers bring in hundreds of billions of additional proven reserves, it will be increasingly difficult to cry "oil scarcity". The oil pundits have gradually morphed from "Peak oil" to "peak cheap oil"
There are enormous deposits of oil at the north slope. Same with the Aleutians. The recent discovery of the Bakken field in Dakota and Wyoming is problematic. The same is true for the very recent discovery of new huge fields in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hopefully, enough easily recoverable oil will be discovered to stop the oil wars. I'm sure that the Middle-East could use a break.

I don't post things because I believe that they are the absolute truth. I post them because I believe that they should be considered.